This was inspired by some really weird weather we're having. It never snows here, but today we got 4 inches.

Just a one-shot. Kind of Faxy. OK, very Faxy. But hey, I love Fax. Who doesn't?

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. If I did, then Fang and Max would have gotten together a lot sooner.

It was snowing.

Most of the time, that wasn't exactly a good thing. It meant it was winter and it was cold. Yeah, I know. No, duh! But most of the time, we were on the run, which meant we were outside. So cold wasn't exactly the best thing.

This time, though, we were staying with my mom and we were on vacation with her and Ella.

Flashback

Ella walked in and threw her bag down.

"Hey, Max."

"Hey, Ella."

"Hey, honey. Max, can I talk to you for a minute?" My mom walked into the room and gave Ella a hug before turning to look at me.

"Sure." I was a little wary. Her tone was kind of nervous. What was up? Did she want us to leave?

I followed her into the kitchen as she started dinner.

"Today was the last day of school for Ella. She's out for Christmas break."

"Yeah, I know. She's been telling me for the last week that she's finally out." I replied. That was a weird way to start. What did she need to talk about?

"Well, every year, we go up to Colorado and go skiing. It's kind of a tradition." She said in a slightly apologetic tone.

"Oh." Oh. That explained some things. Like why Ella had been packing stuff for the past week. And mom. I guess she wanted us to leave and didn't trust us to keep the house in one piece.

"Well, we were wondering if you and the Flock wanted to come with us?"

I just stared at her. She really wanted us to come with her? Her posture told me she was nervous. I could tell that she really did want us to come with them. I was stunned. She didn't know us that well, but she wanted us to join her in a yearly tradition.

I saw some of the hope fade from her eyes as I continued to stare at her, at a loss for words. (A first for me.) "It's ok if you don't. I just thought you might enjoy it. . ."

I snapped out of my stupor. "Of course. We'd love to come."

Her eyes flashed back to me. "Really?"

"Yeah." I said, smiling, before being strangled by a hug.

End flashback

So that's how we ended up here. When I told them, Nudge and Angel began hopping up and down while they hugged me and Nudge talked nonstop about the shopping we'd have to do. Gazzy just grinned huge before tackling me in a hug. Ig grinned big and high-fived Gazzy after he released me. Fang remained impassively leaning against the wall. That is, until I met his eyes and he smirked at me.

After death by shopping, we were finally ready and on our way to a ski resort in Colorado.

When we got there, we split into rooms. Mom had decided we would get four rooms, two to each. She handed the keys to me and left to let us fight over who would stay where. Iggy and Gazzy grabbed a key and their stuff and headed off while Nudge begged me if she could room with Angel.

"It'll be like at the E-shaped house. That was so much fun. Can we room together? Please, Max? Please? Pleasepleasepleaseple-"

I cut her off. "Sure. Here."

"Yay. Thanks, Max! This'll be so much fun. I got a new magazine the other day. We can look. . ." Her voice faded out as she and Angel walked to their room.

"Me and mom can share one, and you and Fang can have the other." Ella said as she followed mom off to one of the rooms.

"Guess that leaves us." I said as I smiled slightly at Fang. He just smirked.

Wonderful. We were officially 'together,' I guess, but this would still be awkward. I swiped the key and opened the door. And it just got more awkward.

One bed.

One.

I sighed. "I'll take the chair." I said, noticing a chair in the farthest corner.

He just looked at me. Are you serious? His eyes asked. "You take the bed."

"No. I'll be fine. You can have the bed."

He continued to stare. I sighed. "Fine."

It was nearly 11, so I quickly got a shower. I went to all the other rooms and did our fist stack with them.

When I got back to my room, I saw that Fang had gotten a shower also and was sitting in the chair. He looked at me, before returning his gaze to the huge window. It was snowing out. "I'll take first watch."

Yeah, we're still paranoid. After all, Mr. Chu was still out there somewhere.

"Ok." I walked over and stacked my fist with his before crawling into the bed.

I was running down a hallway. The walls were made of cinderblocks painted white and there were no windows, but there were a few doors with glass in the top. The pungent, offensive smell of antiseptic filled my nose, and I instantly knew where I was.

The School.

I knew there was a reason I was running, but I didn't know what it was. I looked over my shoulder. Where were the rest? They should be behind me.

I heard voices coming from ahead, so I slowed down. Looking in the window of the door where the voices were coming from, I felt my blood run cold.

There they were. The Flock was strapped to several tables. Whitecoats were everywhere. But that wasn't the worst part. No. The worst part was they were about to dissect them. One whitecoat walked over to a table and picked up a syringe. I saw that three other white coats were sticking the needles into Nudge, Iggy, Angel, and Gazzy.

I burst into the room, and the whitecoats looked up in surprise. Immediately Flyboys that I hadn't even noticed ran to stop me. I punched and kicked my way through them, hell bent on getting to and saving my Flock.

There were two left. I started toward one, when I noticed one whitecoat pull out a gun. I screamed as he pointed it at Fang. I kicked the last one in the back and he crumpled as I heard a gunshot.

I ran over to Fang, and I was shaking as I tried to find a pulse. . .

And then I was awake, sobbing. Fang was leaning over me, shaking me and telling me it was only a dream.

I sat up and pulled him to sit beside me, before burying my head in his chest. His strong heartbeat and slow breathing comforted me as he held me close, letting me cry. Finally, I stopped crying and just stayed there. I was so comfortable.

"Want to tell me about it?"

"I was in the School, running. I found you and the Flock, and they had already killed everyone but you. When I tried to stop them, they shot you."

He held me closer, rubbing my back between my wings. We stayed like that for a while, and I began to nod off. Noticing this, Fang pulled away. "Get some more sleep." He stood and headed for the chair.

I caught his hand. He looked at me over his shoulder and raised his eyebrow in an unspoken question.

"Stay with me, please."

His eyes widened for half a second, then softened. "You sure?"

I just nodded and scooted over to make room.

He walked back over and lay down. He then pulled me closer. I lay my head and my hand on his chest. He stroked my hair slowly, and I sighed contentedly. "Thanks."

He just hugged me closer for a second and continued to stroke my hair. Soon, I was drifting off to his steady heartbeat and the hypnotic feel of his fingers sliding through my hair.

"G'night, Fang."

"Night, Max."

With that, I fell asleep. But before I became completely unconscious, I could have sworn I heard him whisper something that sounded suspiciously like "I love you."

Please review. Did you like it, love it, hate it? Should I do more one-shots?